Better Block: Alamo Plaza edition taking shape

Better Block transforms the corner of Broadway and Jones Avenue in March for Síclovía.

This is an expanded version of the Downtown Dispatches column that ran July 13 in the San Antonio Express-News.

Alamo Plaza offers an iconic piece of history and not much else.

This was the conclusion of Team Better Block, a Dallas-based company which helps cities see underutilized public spaces in a new light.

“Whether you’re a resident or you’re from out of town, the same thing came back: I come here. I see the mission. I leave,” Andrew Howard, construction director of Team Better Block, said. “Or, I go to Ripley’s.”

The idea, Howard said, is to introduce fresh elements to the plaza that would keep people there after their Alamo tour.

The city hired the consultants to assist in the process of reimagining Alamo Plaza, as well as the corner of Broadway and Jones Avenue and Plaza de Armas, for about $50,000. Another consultant, Project for Public Spaces, was hired by the city for $49,648 to gather more feedback.

The feedback from both processes will help the city decide how to spend $1 million from the 2012-2017 bond package.

It’s the perfect public space for a little experimentation.

As a downtowner, the Alamo itself and its surrounding environs have become (to steal a line from “Oliver!”) part of the furniture.

“Updating the interpretive study will help us determine what we can do with that money ($1 million),” Lori Houston, assistant director of the city’s Center City Development Office, said. “We hope to make this a quarterly event. Our focus right now is to activate the plaza and educate people about the history.”

Team Better Block first came to San Antonio in March when it transformed the corner of Jones Avenue and Broadway during Síclovía from an intersection which offered nothing to pedestrians to a walkable, plant-accented environment that encouraged people to explore and relax.

Better Block’s final project will be transforming Plaza de Armas. Preliminary plans call for it to be some sort of market. Houston confirmed the plaza as the final Better Block project, and said one of the top priorities is figuring out how to improve its connectivity with it connect better with Commerce Street.